am_dew
Advanced Contributor
"I just got back from a week l
"I just got back from a week long vacation at my family's lake front cabin on Lake Almanor, CA. Of course, I took the boat. This was only the second time I've had the boat out after installing a Pertronix Ignitor electronic ignition conversion kit on my AQ130C engine. Despite it running flawlessly the first time out after the conversion, I ran into a little problem on vacation that baffled me for a few days. After taking the engine up to cruising speed (4000-4600 RPM), the RPMs would intermittently quickly drop 300-500 RPM and then recover. This RPM fluctuation happend primarily at the upper end RPMs. I tried adjusting the air/fuel mixture on the carbs to no avail, I checked and adjusted the timing, verified the butterflies on the carbs were operating properly, etc. Finally, while my girlfriend was drving and I was back looking at the the engine while we were cruising and the RPM fluctuation was happening, I noticed some very small sparks around the ground post of the coil. After shutting the engine down, I found that the terminal attached to the coil's ground post was loose and you could wiggle it back and forth on the ground post. This coil does not have threaded posts so I just improvised and used plastic zip ties to pull one of the wires attached to the coil's ground terminal in such a way that the terminal was making constant and solid contact with the coil ground post. The boat ran perfectly after that. I need to find a better solution on securing the ground terminal to the coil post, or I may just buy a new coil...the Pertronix coil made to work with the Ignitor.
I also had my ongoing issues with lowering and raising the outdrive but I was able to overcome those, albeit with some frustration, so I need to try and resolve them instead of just dealing with it.
But, despite the small issues, the boat ran great and we had a very nice, but too short of, vacation."
"I just got back from a week long vacation at my family's lake front cabin on Lake Almanor, CA. Of course, I took the boat. This was only the second time I've had the boat out after installing a Pertronix Ignitor electronic ignition conversion kit on my AQ130C engine. Despite it running flawlessly the first time out after the conversion, I ran into a little problem on vacation that baffled me for a few days. After taking the engine up to cruising speed (4000-4600 RPM), the RPMs would intermittently quickly drop 300-500 RPM and then recover. This RPM fluctuation happend primarily at the upper end RPMs. I tried adjusting the air/fuel mixture on the carbs to no avail, I checked and adjusted the timing, verified the butterflies on the carbs were operating properly, etc. Finally, while my girlfriend was drving and I was back looking at the the engine while we were cruising and the RPM fluctuation was happening, I noticed some very small sparks around the ground post of the coil. After shutting the engine down, I found that the terminal attached to the coil's ground post was loose and you could wiggle it back and forth on the ground post. This coil does not have threaded posts so I just improvised and used plastic zip ties to pull one of the wires attached to the coil's ground terminal in such a way that the terminal was making constant and solid contact with the coil ground post. The boat ran perfectly after that. I need to find a better solution on securing the ground terminal to the coil post, or I may just buy a new coil...the Pertronix coil made to work with the Ignitor.
I also had my ongoing issues with lowering and raising the outdrive but I was able to overcome those, albeit with some frustration, so I need to try and resolve them instead of just dealing with it.
But, despite the small issues, the boat ran great and we had a very nice, but too short of, vacation."